Category: liturgy

It’s worth inviting people into this mystical journey of triumph, friendship, tenderness, betrayal, desolation, pain, death, grief, astonishment, and victory. It’s worth it because God is glorified, our faith is enriched, and people are drawn into a deeper relationship with our Lord.

As disciples, we’re followers, and followers are always on the move. So a pretty good way to think of preaching is as a way to keep the followers moving, for Christ our leader is always challenging us to grow into the full stature of his likeness.

Charles was martyred so that Anglican Christians would still have bishops (and the whole three-fold ministry). In other words, this martyr valued the Gospel and the church more than his own life. He is a witness for us. That is what a martyr is, after all.

Sometimes, I think we confuse the work of the church and the work of disciples. The church — literally, the ekklesia, the community — is found where Christians are gathered. The work of the church is to offer prayer and praise; to proclaim the Gospel; and to promote justice, peace, and love.

In an annual tradition, here is the customary Epiphany Proclamation, to be read out at services today and shared with the faithful. Since I am not serving in a parish, I am pleased to share this with you, dear reader, here on 7WD.

Several dioceses have submitted resolutions on liturgical matters, including resolutions on encouraging the communion of unbaptized people. There are also resolutions for a constitutional amendment and edits to the baptismal covenant. The topic of communion without regard to baptism is an important one, so I hope everyone will pray, study, and listen before voting.

This is the twenty-eighth post in a series on resolutions for General Convention 2015. See also the index of resolutions and the list of resources related to #GC78. When I blogged the resolutions on our calendar of saints...

For those just tuning in, let me remind you that I fully support our church’s continued move to bless and marry same-sex couples. My only questions are about how to do that. In this post, I share some hopes about how we might proceed.

Whatever we do at this General Convention, I hope we will do it graciously. We should be kind to one another, and we should realize that we have things to learn from those with whom we differ. In our speech and in our action, I hope we will model the love of Jesus Christ which is the same love that animates the very marriages we are discussing.

Today we look at about a dozen resolutions. Who knew liturgical legislation could be this fun?! So without further delay, here are today’s batch of resolutions from the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music.